Our First Two Grants for
COVID-19 Bridge Funding

We are delighted to announce our first two grants under our Bridge Funding stream.

Bridge Funding is awarded to small or medium-sized, well-governed charities to support them with the short-term challenges of declining income and increasing service demand due to the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

Surrey Family and Mediation Services
SFMS is the only not-for-profit family mediation service in Surrey. They provide a subsidised service which is accessible for those on a low income.

When the Covid-19 crisis hit, they quickly moved to an online service, training their mediators on online video conferencing and providing them with laptops so that they can work remotely from home.

Like many local charities, they have experienced a substantial drop in income over the last six months.  Our £10,000 grant will fund core costs and enable them to support more clients needing their services due to the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on relationships. 

North West Surrey Samaritans

North West Surrey Samaritans provide emotional support to people who are struggling to cope or experiencing feelings of emotional distress, including those that might lead to suicide.

During the pandemic, they have received a large number of calls from people whose well-being has been negatively affected by COVID-19.  Many calls have been from people trapped at home either alone in self-isolation or in unhappy, stressful or abusive family situations. 

While demand for their services has been high, they have experienced a sudden and substantial drop in income due to the cancellation of all fundraising events.

We are pleased to award a grant £5,000 to support the core costs of the organisation at this difficult time.

Branch Director, Catherine Silk, said "We have always relied entirely upon donations to maintain our service, so not being able to run fundraising events has been very concerning for us. We are so grateful for the generous grant from Walton Charity to help us to train new volunteers and keep our phone lines open, so we can make sure we are here to support people who need someone to talk to."

If you would like to help similar organisations experiencing a huge drop in income, please donate to our COVID-19 Appeal Fund and we will match donations (up to £100,000).